1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 316 Mekong River

The "Beetham" and "Bilthoven" are two small sailing ships owned by the Dutch East India Company. They mainly carry out commodity acquisition and logistics transshipment from Udon King City, Kingdom of Cambodia, to the mouth of the river (Mekong River).Although it is a small sailing ship, it can also sail across the sea between Formosa and Batavia. Moreover, the ship is equipped with two cannons. It is still capable of facing the many small sampans in the Kingdom of Cambodia up and down the big river. Absolute advantage.

These two small sailing ships also secretly carried out the instructions of the East India Company's senior representative in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Peter Van Rieger Mortes, to intercept and kill any merchant ships they encountered without anyone paying attention, so as to reduce the number of the kingdom as much as possible. Other merchants imported and exported goods, and gradually established the monopoly position of goods in this area outside the East India Company.

What the Dutch East India Company did was thought to be clean and no one knew about it.But almost all businessmen in the entire Kingdom of Cambodia knew about the despicable deeds of the Dutch, and even their new king Ibrahim I had heard a little bit.However, so far, the Kingdom of Cambodia has not had any survivors who have been intercepted and killed by Dutch armed merchant ships to report the matter in person, making the Dutch still maintain their usual domineering behavior.

At this time, in front of the two small Dutch armed merchant ships, there were two small boats weighing tens of tons, sailing quickly towards the lower reaches of the river.The Dutch armed merchant ship only looked at the other party's waterline, and it was already clear that these were two small ships carrying a large amount of cargo.And looking at the shape, it should be Malay.

After hesitating for a moment, two small Dutch armed merchant ships followed quickly. They were confident that the two small ships could not escape their pursuit.It is less than 100 kilometers away from the mouth of the big river, and the two Malay boats must have come from the upper reaches of Phnom Penh.

If, when they found the Dutch armed merchant ship, they could quickly dock and call the soldiers and officials of the nearby Kingdom of Cambodia, perhaps the Dutch would have some scruples and choose to leave.But the other party seemed to have a slight deviation in their estimation of the matter. Instead, they were bold and wanted to go down the river, escape from the big river, and then sail into the vast sea to avoid the interception and killing of the Dutch.

Don't they know that our Dutch ships can not only sail on big rivers, but even when they reach the sea, they can quickly catch up with them with a few sails. Need to have any scruples.

Near noon, two small Dutch armed merchant ships blocked a small Malay boat and forced the other to grab a beach on the bank of the big river.

After leaving an armed merchant ship to guard the intercepted Malay boat, another Dutch armed merchant ship continued to bite the remaining Malay boat tightly.Although firing from behind to threaten the Malay boat from time to time, the other party ignored them at all and still fled desperately towards the sea.

The captain and sailors of the Dutch armed merchant ship cursed at this, and secretly vowed that if the Malay boat was intercepted, everyone on board would be thrown overboard to feed the fish.

Sure enough, the Malay boat left the river mouth and headed south, but without the help of the current, the speed slowed down significantly.Through the binoculars, the captain of the Dutch armed merchant ship could already clearly see that the sailors on the Malay boat had begun to panic.

After adjusting the sails to better take advantage of the weak wind, the Dutch armed merchant ship rushed over aggressively.Some sailors on the ship began to prepare muskets so that they could shoot the other sailors when they approached the Malay boat.

Less than 50 meters away from the small Malay boat, the sailors on the Dutch armed merchant ship watched each other playfully paddling their oars in vain, with despair on everyone's face.There were still people among them, standing at the bow of the boat, looking around.

Do you still expect a brave knight to appear on this sea to save you?
"Boom!" The Dutch armed merchant ship fired at the Malay boat. The shells passed the other ship and fell into the sea, stirring up a column of water.Seven or eight sailors with muskets also started shooting towards the opposite side, and hit one of the Malay sailors.For the Dutch armed merchant ships, this small Malay boat was already a prey that was about to be caught.

But the small Malay boat seemed unwilling to be caught without a fight, and kept avoiding the interception of Dutch armed merchant ships.The Dutch were not in a hurry either, they surrounded it like a joke.The enemy is so stubborn, presumably the cargo on board should be more precious, it must be captured intact.

The sailors on the Dutch armed merchant ship, except for five or six who were operating the ship, all held muskets and kept shooting at the Malay boat when the two ships approached.

In less than half an hour, six or seven sailors on the Malay boat were killed or injured, and the boat gradually became uncontrollable.The Dutch sailors have already begun to prepare Sogo, trying to capture the small Malay boat with help.

As three or four rope hooks firmly held the side of the Malay boat, cheers erupted from the Dutch armed merchant ship, and everyone struggled to pull the Malay boat closer, and then tied the ropes tightly together.A dozen or so Dutch sailors, holding muskets or knives, jumped over the side of the ship and entered the Malay boat.

After muskets knocked out several Malay sailors who dared to resist, the Dutch had already taken control of the Malay boat that had been chasing for a long time.A few eager sailors rushed into the cabin, eager to see what cargo was on board that made them flee like this.

"Only rice?"

"Only rice..."

The Dutch looked at each other in blank dismay, and the ship was loaded with worthless rice. Then why did these Malay sailors die so desperately?
"There is a big ship coming!" suddenly a sailor on the Dutch armed merchant ship shouted loudly: "Oh, God! It is rushing directly towards us!"

Many Dutch sailors heard the warning call and immediately looked around, only to see a large ship in the southeast less than 700 meters away from them, and with that posture, it was obvious that they were not here to watch the excitement.

The Dutch immediately panicked and concentrated on robbing, but they didn't find the enemy ship in advance. This may be a huge disaster for them.The Dutch sailors in the Malay boat hurriedly climbed towards their own ship, hoping to escape by boat when the enemy ship approached.

However, it was too late. When the big ship was less than 100 meters away, the Dutch were still struggling to cut the hook rope connecting the Malay boat.

"Boom! Boom!" The big ship fired two shots at the Dutch armed merchant ship. The close-range bombardment hit their bow in an instant, and the broken pieces of wood flew up, knocking down two nearby Dutch sailors on the deck. .

Watching the opponent's big ship slowly turn its bow sideways, exposing more than a dozen gun ports on one side of the ship's side, the Dutch armed merchant ship very wisely chose to surrender immediately.

"Hanzhou people?" The Dutch captain saw the armed soldiers coming up, dressed in blue and black military uniforms, and their faces turned pale.

When another Dutch armed merchant ship excitedly escorted the captured Malay boat out of the mouth of the big river, it was also captured after being bombarded by the "Qi Ming" who was waiting there for a burst of intensive artillery.

A few days later, Peter Van Regmotes, the senior representative of the East India Company in the Kingdom of Cambodia, was in a commercial station when he saw the densely packed Royal Cambodian army outside, his face was ashamed.The entire commercial station is just two brick and stone houses with simple wooden fences on the outside, which is not equipped for defense at all.In addition, there are only more than [-] people in the entire trading station and armed guards, how can they fight against nearly a thousand troops outside.

The Dutch chose to lay down their arms and surrender to the Royal Cambodian army.But each of them firmly believed that the East India Company would not stop there, and that Batavia would send an expeditionary force to rescue them and eventually force the kingdom to submit to the Dutch East India Company.They also secretly rejoiced that the two small merchant ships belonging to the trading station did not stop at Phnom Penh City.When they get the news here, they will definitely sail back to Batavia to report the news.

"If the Kingdom of Cambodia pulls out the Dutch business station, then there will be no Dutch people around here." Qi Dajiang said with a smile: "And in this way, the Kingdom of Cambodia has become an enemy of the Dutch, and we Our Hanzhou is a potential ally."

"Well, the Kingdom of Cambodia can not only fight against the Dutch together with us, but also against the Guangnan Kingdom." Hu Pingjiang nodded and said, "In this case, Xinsheng Island also has room for maneuver."

"The Annan people will come with 5000 people. I heard that they are still an elite army on the northern border. Are you sure you want to put them all on the shore?"

"The Dutch helped them last time, so we couldn't wipe them all out." Hu Pingjiang said, "You brought four big ships this time, and no matter what, all the Annan people in the future should stay on Xinsheng Island. If you hurt them this time, you should know that Hanzhou is not easy to mess with!"

"There are more than 100 small boats, we may not be able to take care of them!" Qi Dajiang smiled bitterly: "Unless the five big boats that immigrated from Hanxing Island are pulled over together."

"My Commander Qi Er, you still want to wipe out all the navy of Guangnan Kingdom here!" Hu Pingjiang said with a smile: "You four big ships need to prevent their small boats from approaching Xinsheng Island. It is enough for the Annan people on board to pick it up!"

"I was thinking that if we could kill some more boats, the Annan people would not be able to send troops over next time." Qi Dajiang said.

"By the way, the people in Champa said that this time the Guangnan Congress hired several Portuguese and Ming merchant ships to transport troops. At that time, will our ships hit them?"

"It's better to expel them." Qi Dajiang said: "Those merchant ships saw our warships coming, and they probably wouldn't try their best. When they left Jianye City last year, the commander-in-chief said that they should concentrate their strength to fight against the Dutch. Portuguese, it is best to ease the relationship."

"The Portuguese have sunk our immigration ship." Hu Pingjiang sighed.

"Be patient for now. After we force the Dutch to make peace, we can develop for a few years. When we become stronger, we will settle accounts with them!"

"Our Xinsheng Island took in sixty or seventy sailors from Zheng's family a while ago. After some temptation, more than 50 people were willing to join us. The rest did not dare to accept because they had family members in Daming." Hu Pingjiang He smiled and said, "Tell me, if Zheng Zhilong knows about it, will he annoy us?"

"Annoyed us?" Qi Dajiang shook his head and said: "A few days ago, they forcibly bought the Spanish merchant ships we captured, and we are still annoyed by them! According to my intention, the remaining sailors who have concerns Stay too! In the future, I will exchange artillery with the Zheng family for their family members."

(End of this chapter)